


Harry Potter and the Family Video Call

by Beecharmer



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: COVID 19, Family, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:42:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23879359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beecharmer/pseuds/Beecharmer
Summary: Based on Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. Potter/Weasley family coping with a group video call. Also how might the Wizarding World be affected by the 2020 Covid 19 crisis.Set in early days of next generation being at Hogwarts, so original characters in their 30s no details specifically from Cursed Child, but using resources online where JK Rowling says details of what happened after the Main books end.This is a fan work and no connection to JK Rowling.
Relationships: Angelina Johnson/George Weasley, Arthur Weasley/Molly Weasley, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

Harry Potter was tired. 

It had been a bizarre couple of weeks, even by the standards of the wizarding world. The crisis had been dismissed as a Muggle problem to begin with. Suddenly, as Wizard after Wizard needed healing, they realised the virus didn’t discriminate; it affected Wizards in just the same way as anyone else. 

If anything with such a small interconnected society, used to apparating wherever they liked instantly, it affected them worse. Wizards and Witches arrived at hospital late in the symptoms, used to the idea that a potion or counter jinx would solve their issue. They struggled to understand illness that wasn’t a quick fix, and with milder cases became argumentative, sure that it was over, and they could return to normal. 

Unfortunately this was not the case, as it resisted most of the efforts of the Healers, and seemed to pass even faster among Wizards than Muggles. This had lead to confusion, panic and disorder very quickly, and many in the Wizarding world suspected an unknown Dark Wizard to be behind it. 

Harry hoped not, the Auror force was spread so thin dealing with the crisis as it was, they would be extremely vulnerable to attack. Having frequently visited the Department of Mysteries in his years as Head of the Auror office, Harry highly suspected one of the countries around the world had had an accidental escape of one of an experimental jinx or curse

The very fact it affected people in so many different ways and resisting Wizarding healing made Harry very doubtful of it being a muggle disease. It was up to the Wizarding world to find a solution, but at the moment none of them knew quite where to start. 

He massaged his forehead, he had a dull headache that seemed never to quite leave at the moment, though thankfully none of the main virus symptoms. He was pleased at least that there was no twinging in his scar, that at least since Voldemort’s death his only headaches had been relatively normal ones. 

Well ... normal for a wizard anyway. 

Certain curses always had a bit of a sting to them, and the random magic his young children produced as toddlers had on occasion made him feel as though he’d been hit over the head with a frying pan. 

But that was quite normal for a wizarding parent, he had been reassured by Mr and Mrs Weasley. 

“If I had a sickle for every time one of the babies made my ears grow if I tried to ignore their crying, or made objects from their crib chase me for attention, I’d be a rich witch!” Mrs Weasley had said fondly when he and Hermonione brought it up. 

“The twins...” she had started, before her expression clouded slightly and then she carried on. It had been over a decade since she lost Fred, but the pain was very clearly there, as it was for them all.

“...The twins were the worst, not that that would surprise you, I’m sure! We had such trouble when we first had Ron, they would magic him up into the attic every time he cried. I do wonder if that’s why he got on so well with the family ghoul sometimes...” 

Harry grinned at his video chat screen. 

Ron’s face was comical as he she went on to explain that was why his bedroom was just below the attic. 

“Well dear, it was quicker then to get you back down. Unfortunately the others caught on, and every time you cried we’d suddenly find you had disappeared. After a while we just moved you up there”

“Huh. Thanks a lot... What about Ginny?” Ron had asked. “Did they do that with her? I don’t remember that. Did they send her there too?” 

“Well ... not so much..”

Ron rolled his eyes. 

“Ginny was much quieter dear, you always did have a tendency to cry more at night. And even after you were older you would shout out and talk in your sleep you see. And you did wet the bed for such a long time, I think that must have made you wake up more” 

Ron had now gone red right to the tips of his ears. 

“MUM! The whole world doesn’t need to know that!”

“Why are you making such a fuss, dear, I’m not telling the whole world! It’s only you?” 

“Mum, I think you need to adjust your settings, you should see a few people, not just Ron.” came another voice. 

Mrs Weasley’s expression brightened. 

“Oh hello Ginny dear, how are you? Ron, I will have to call you back, Ginny has just called ...”

“NO Mum, don’t hang up! It’s a call with everyone! Don’t press the...”

The ‘Weasley Parents’ screen went blank, then a few minutes later reappeared as Arthur reconnected. 

“Hello Harry, sorry about that, I think we have it now...” Arthur said, as Molly crowded close to him and looked much happier as she saw all the pictures pop up. 

“Hello Ginny, Hello Harry” 

Rose Weasley’s face suddenly appeared in front of Ron’s 

“Hello Grandma, Hello Grandpa!”

“Rose, go back to your tablet, you are supposed to be on a Herbology lesson”

“Come on dad, pleeeease?”

“No, you really ought to, you are supposed to be in school, go on.”

“Come onnnnn, there’s not much left of the lesson now anyway. I want to talk to everyone”

Ron looked close to agreeing, but another voice boomed out, this time much firmer. 

“NO Rose, go back to Herbology, NOW.”

Rose looked guilty. 

“Oh help, I didn’t know mum was on here too!” 

Everyone looked just as startled as her and looked around their screens. All the video chats went quiet except Rose as the adults all tried to find Hermione’s screen, including Ron. 

Rose meanwhile stayed leaning on her father’s shoulder and took on a wheedling tone.

“Come on mum, Uncle Neville won’t notice.”

“That’s not the point, he is making a lot of effort to do these lessons at home so you don’t get behind.” Said Hermione sternly. 

“Come on mum, I read the theory book on my first week of term, let me talk to everyone. Herbology is boring when you can’t mess around with the plants. Is James Sirius there?”

Ginny stopped trying to find Hermione’s video screen for a moment to reply.

“No he has Care of Magical creatures, Rose”

Rose laughed. 

“If it’s anything like yesterday he won’t be learning much! The computer camera couldn’t zoom out far enough, all we could see was Hagrid’s mouth and nose!” 

Harry couldn’t help but smile. He had seen some of that lesson over his younger son Albus’s shoulder. 

Hagrid seemed to be convinced he needed to shout for the students to hear him, and his voice was quite loud anyway so it hadn’t been a very useful lesson, that was true. 

Hagrid had also rested the computer on a wall while he grabbed an escaping animal Harry couldn’t quite identify. He didn’t quite like to ask, just hoping that it was a creature Luna and her husband had found on their travels round the world and sent back and not some extra dangerous monster. 

Knowing Hagrid however, he suspected that it was another cross breed, and thought slightly nostalgically of the Blast Ended Screwts. 

Once out in the wider wizarding world, Harry had realised that, dangerous as they were, the screwts were mild compared to some of the animals he encountered. 

Strangely enough, once he was an Auror and having to work past defences set up by Dark Wizards, the lessons on how to wrangle a vicious animal with unknown properties had turned out to be one of the most useful skills he had. 

“It’s all sorted now, the school have managed to set up a camera on the top of Hagrid’s hut, and clipped a magical microphone to him.” Ginny replied to Rose’s comment on the e-lessons. 

In the background of Ron’s screen Neville Longbottom’s voice was suddenly magically amplified. 

“Rose Granger-Weasley, please come back to the screen”

Rose froze and tried to stay really still and quiet, but the voice continued. 

“Rose, I can see you! You haven’t gone to the bathroom, now please come back and pay attention!” Neville’s voice boomed from behind her and Ron, clearly a bit irritated. 

“Oh so sorry Professor Longbottom, I got distracted, I will go to the bathroom now” 

“Rose, go back to your lesson! You can wait, it’s only five minutes more.” came Hermione’s voice again. 

Rose tried to work out whether she could get away with any more time, but decided it wasn’t possible. She rolled her eyes and stalked back to her tablet. 

Ron’s image looked strange for a moment, showing a ceiling and edge of a door, and he reappeared again in a different room. 

“That’s better, got the door shut. Hermione where are you calling in from, I can’t see you?”

“Me too”

“Oh I thought it was just me!”

“See I told you Arthur, I hadn’t touched anything on the cheese-board or mouse, the others can’t see her either!” 

“How are you hiding Hermione?” 

“Oh I’m so sorry everyone, wait a moment...”

Click Next Chapter to read more


	2. Chapter 2

A new screen arrived suddenly, and Hermione could be seen, an office full of scrolls of parchment piled on desks and paper airplane memos zooming in every few moments visible behind her. 

“We had a meeting with some of the Unspeakables just before, and I’m not yet used to the settings. We have to use extra cloaking so Dark Wizards don’t know too much. Not totally sure yet how secure all this is, mixing muggle and wizarding technology.”

Hermione looked exhausted, hair even bushier than normal. She was pale and her eyes kept sliding off to screens in the background, fingers clearly itching to unroll and read the scrolls arriving. 

Harry understood. As Head of the Auror office this was his first day at home for a while, they had had so many issues trying to get Wizards to understand they had to stay in or only go out for essentials. 

He knew that the memos and issues to sort would be piling in even now, despite it being a weekend. Any minute now his memo printer would start up again, and completely cover his desk at home. 

He rubbed his forehead again at the thought, knowing he would be working late into the night.  
Like Hermione however, he didn’t want to miss the chance to catch up with everybody. 

He was busier than ever at the moment, trying to keep his team of Auror’s and the wider wizarding community protected from Dark Wizards while also keeping themselves as safe as possible from the virus. 

Ginny was working too, writing articles and wizard radio programs to keep wizards entertained and informed during the crisis. She had no Quidditch to commentate on, so had started a “Wiztube” channel where she commented on the activities of the gnomes and other magical creatures in their back garden. 

It was fast becoming a hit, but was slightly embarrassing to have their back garden being broadcast all over the Wizarding world. The Daily Prophet had started dropping in little hints about if he was unable to control his own Gnomes, how could Harry and his Aurors keep order. 

He didn’t have as bad a time as Hermione. The Department for Magical Law Enforcement were overrun with adjusting and changing regulations to help the Ministry cope with the crisis. She was now sleeping full time at the Ministry, to avoid bringing anything back home, as she couldn’t avoid getting close to people in her role, and didn’t want to set a bad example by apparating back and forth. 

She was probably working all through the night as it was a completely unprecedented time, and the situation kept changing so quickly. Hermione used the excuse that she needed Ron to be at home to look after the children so she could focus on work, but Harry knew that was only part of the reason. 

Ron was very touchy about it being mentioned, but his injuries during the Wizarding War and before tended to mean he caught illnesses very easily, even at the best of times. He also wasn’t really suited to a Ministry life, being far too happy to let little infringements go if they were funny or useful enough. 

That was one reason why he was now just a Reserve Auror, doing remote support part time instead of face to face and mainly helped George run Wheezley Wizarding Wheezes. 

Harry himself had been worried about Ron going out more than he should. It had taken quite a bit of persuading to get him to stop going in to Diagon Alley. Only George and Ginny both threatening to jinx him in embarrassing ways in front of his children had made him agree. 

The video chat had developed into a confusing mass of cross conversations, so Harry let his mind wander a little and just watched the tired faces looking back at him. 

Ron and Ginny had been practicing all week with Mr and Mrs Weasley, working out any issues in preparation for tonight’s bigger group call, but the age of their computer and the amount of magic around them at The Burrow made their connection very erratic, not helped by the Weasley patriarch tending to fiddle with the controls every few minutes. 

Mr Weasley had been thoroughly over excited, thrilled to have a Ministry Approved way of playing with a Muggle gadget, especially one powered by “Eckletricity” 

“Harry it has so many different types of plugs! There’s the one with three metal points on the end. Of course I know all about those ones, as you know. Then these special ones from the boxy thing to the mirror machine! And the one to the typewriter box, the Cheese Board and the ... did you call it a shrew?”

“Mouse, Arthur, it’s a mouse. And a Keyboard.” Harry replied, trying not to show a grin. 

He didn’t even try to correct all the names any more. He could absolutely see the logic of a Mouse and Cheese Board, so if it helped Arthur remember it was called a ‘Mouse’ that was enough. It wasn’t like many of the wizards they knew would pick up on the error anyway. 

Mr Weasley loved fiddling with the old computer, and had adapted it to not need the shielding most muggle devices did. Probably not a process yet Ministry of Magic approved, Harry suspected, but that was a formality rather than a real crime. 

When he first saw the computer, Harry guessed that Arthur had had it for some time before this emergency, even when he shouldn’t have been adjusting muggle artefacts. He was ecstatic to be able to bring it into the house and have a Ministry Approved way to use it even more. 

Much as the wizarding world normally ignored or even laughed at muggle technology, they had had to embrace it during the crisis. So many wizarding ways of communication seemed potentially risky at the moment, until they knew more how the virus spread. 

Harry had somehow become his family’s technical advisor, despite not really being that used to muggle computers himself. 

He especially struggled with the old desktop style set up Mr Weasley had. Dudley had had a computer, but Harry had rarely been able to get anywhere near it unless the family was out, and had only played games when he did. He had had to spend a few evenings trawling through the instruction manuals for the devices to find the answers to help Mr Weasley get onto the video chat program. 

Most wizards now use tablets or handheld devices for their communication, as they seemed more intuitive and to have less interference from being around magic. 

From the evasive answers Hermione gave reporters when questioned, Harry suspected that some of the devices muggles used nowadays were actually a magical product anyway, developed internationally from research at the Department of Mysteries to bring in extra funds for the Ministry. 

It was very useful, so most sensible wizards didn’t see the harm, but Harry knew that there would be an outcry if any of the papers managed to get the story. Only The Quibbler had actually run the story so far, and thankfully after a brief period with sensible journalism during the fight against Voldemort, they had gone back to Crumple Ended Snorksaks. 

They had been a bit close to the truth however with the question of High Speed Wifi actually being a Wizarding technology, so Harry had been grateful that very few people took their stories that seriously. He didn’t want to have to investigate the source of the high speed wifi and tablet inventions too much, he suspected it would be a waste of time and never be allowed to be released anyway. 

Even with the addition of Wifi, the desktop had been erratic in it’s internet connection at the best of times. Harry had been sorely tempted after a few weeks of battling with the Elder Weasley’s computer at a distance, to just buy a few of the newer devices for Arthur and Molly. 

However the whole Weasley family agreed not to do so. With the amount of settings needed and all the plugs and wires, it would help keep Arthur occupied to stop him trying to go back to work . 

Mr Weasley had technically retired but this crisis involved a lot of interaction and understanding of the Muggle world, so he felt duty bound to help. 

The problem was that his injury from the snake was the sort of situation that St Mungos felt might make him very vulnerable to the virus. The whole family was determined to see that he and Molly stay at home and didn’t take any risks, even patronus messages or too many owl deliveries. 

“Harry, Harry, I can only see you now. Have we cut ourselves off again?”

Harry jumped and brought his attention back to the chat screen. It had gone to a screensaver while he had been daydreaming and vaguely wondering whether he should cut off and go back to work. 

A chorus of ‘No’ and ‘No we can still see Harry, and can hear you’ from the others on the call was followed by Mrs Weasley’s voice. He tapped his screen and the other windows arrived again, though Harry couldn’t see Molly or Arthur on the screen any more. 

“Sorry Molly, what did you say?” He asked.  
“The Mirror machine has made you all look very small, is that the computer or have you had a shrinking charm used on you?” came Molly Weasley’s voice again. 

He quickly explained what they had probably done, and got them back to the group screen. 

He could see the other’s trying not to laugh Mr & Mrs Weasley’s image turned 90 degrees, added a background of several muggle plugs, and at one point flipped to show the Weasley Kitchen instead. 

The ‘mirror machine’ seemed quite a good name for a Monitor really, especially as Mr Weasley frequently got stuck with the camera showing himself rather than the person he was trying to see. 

Harry could see the logic of all the names the family used, and saw little point in making them learn the correct ones. It wasn’t as though they would be talking to muggles about it after all. 

Ginny had asked him to try to stop Arthur calling the old fashioned plug in mouse a ‘Shrew’ though, and Harry did his best. 

It wasn’t the most helpful of words to be using at the moment while stuck at The Burrow with his wife. Arthur did have a tendency to mention problems controlling his ‘Shrew’ at the worst moments. 

After a month of near lockdown, Mrs Weasley was starting to get touchy, and her eyes would flash dangerously on occasion at this phrase. 

It wasn’t in Arthur’s nature to make jibes or call her names, so Harry knew it was probably purely accidental. However even Arthur’s tone and conversation style was far less gentle than normal, and all of the family was a bit irritated by Mrs Weasley not taking the lockdown seriously.

Harry had been really surprised. Normally she was the first to insist that something to protect the family be done. What they had all underestimated was her need to physically KNOW her family was safe. 

Her clock was being most unhelpful, since it had determinedly stuck most of the Hands at ‘In Mortal Peril’ from the start of the crisis. This unnerved the bravest of them when the screen switched round, as it did several times a chat, to show the Weasley kitchen. It must be even more scary and wearing to see it like that all day every day.

So her family understood why Mrs Weasley wasn’t quite herself, but struggled to know how to help. Being used to people dropping in at all hours, or being able to go and visit her grandchildren any time she wanted to, the restrictions had hit her fairly hard.

Especially as even the most careless of the family were insisting on following the rules. Bill and Fleur were both unable to call much as they were part of the task force working out if it was a curse, and if so, how to break it. Teddy Lupin and Bill and Fleur’s daughter Victoire were constantly using their tablets to communicate with each other, not coping with being apart so long, so none of that part of the family managed many video calls, but when they did, Fleur had a habit of laughing whenever the ‘shrew’ was mentioned, tact having never been one of her strong points. 

Percy was following outdated Ministry guidelines to the letter and refused to have a tablet or computer at home, and would not use the work ones for personal calls. No one really missed him that much, except Mrs Weasley, but she would often try to encourage him to call round and visit her in person, since he couldn’t contact online. 

The one thing the whole family agreed on however was that none of them must visit. Everyone was worried about Mr Weasley’s health, and were all being especially firm about keeping them at home and safe. 

Wizard communication and transport had been hit badly by the virus. For some reason, apparition seemed to amplify the spread, so had been banned, along with non essential portkeys. 

Wizards had been having to use Muggle transport, but with so few people about, they were far more noticeable than normal. 

Muggle media had so far been assuming the ‘costumes’ were to raise morale, but as the lockdown became stricter this was getting harder and harder to explain. 

Half of Harry’s team were having to fly around under disillusionment charms or invisibility cloaks finding wizards determined to ignore the ban, and send them home. 

The problem was that the heavy use of confundus spells on those who caught sight of the oddly dressed wizards was making the muggle population even more confused and disorientated, and leading to some very odd behaviour from some of them too. 

Thankfully the general confusion all over the world meant muggles were more accepting of not understanding what they were seeing than normal, or of their own friends and neighbours behaving strangely, so the wizarding world was relatively safe for the moment. 

The closest anyone had come was Muggle authoritis questioning how the virus could have spread from certain places so quickly. 

Most of the Ministries of Magic around the world agreed that it must be in part due to portkeys and Wizard Apparition. 

The virus could spread a long way before the Wizards involved got any symptoms, and many wizarding children attended muggle schools in their younger years, so it wasn’t hard to guess where a lot of the spread had occurred. 

It wasn’t until now that Harry realised just how many means of wozard communication involved transporting real objects around. The Ministry had been forced to rely on portraits, memo airplanes and shielded muggle technology, none of which was that reliable. 

There had been a complete shut down of the flue network early on due to concerns about bringing the virus into a house even with a ‘head-only’ call. 

Certain ministry officials and St Mungo’s healers were being issued with special helmets or suits to try to see whether it was possible to open up certain chimneys early, but with little luck so far. They had also put restrictions on Owl Post, asking for people to use it only when strictly necessary. 

The Daily Prophet had been running as many stories as possible about this, playing down the risk of Owl transmission, as fewer people could buy papers if they couldn’t use owl post. They hadbeen developing a plan to be able to throw papers out along a flue network route, so were very keen for the restrictions to be loosened. 

Harry had discussed with colleagues at the Ministry already, and knew some relaxing of the flue network might end up happening soon due to public pressure. At least it was easier to track and shut down than if people started apparating again in frustration. 

Ginny had made him promise that he would make sure the Weasley’s chimney stayed blocked off from the network until things were safer, and Harry had asked the staff of the Flue Network promise to not reconnect their chimney or let the elder Weasley’s know when restrictions ended. 

It had been an awkward conversation, as the Head of the Department friend of Arthur’s, and didn’t like Auror interference. 

Harry had had to make it an official order, much as he had been trying to do it by a request. He felt bad doing so, after all he wouldn’t like someone interfering in what he could do in his department, and he understood not wanting to let down a friend. 

But both of the elder Weasleys were such independent people and used to doing their duty, keeping them safe at home was not proving to be easy. 

If it had been a magical enemy the family wouldn’t have hesitated, would have been glad to have them out and helping fight. 

Molly Weasley especially was still held in high esteem throughout for her defeat of Bellatrix Lestrange. She was a formidable witch, and used to being the person who looked after others. She just wasn’t adjusting well to being looked after herself. 

Ron and George particularly had been a little abrupt with Mrs Weasley lately, as she was constantly calling and suggesting she could

“Just nip over, I’m sure you and we are well enough to risk a quick hello.”

Apart from the worry about their parents getting the virus, they had issues of their own. They were working every hour they could trying to work out a safe way to do a. “Owl order service” and stop the joke shop being ruined by the abrupt drop in footfall. 

Diagon Alley was nearly all shut, and even if they had been allowed to keep the Joke Shop open there were barely any customers about. 

Hermione was in such need all round the clock at the Ministry that she was having to isolate there at the moment, not wanting to risk bringing anything home to Ron or the children. 

Ron’s injuries during the wizarding war and the splinching had left him healthy enough, but still a little more vulnerable to infections than most, and Hermione wasn’t risking anything where he was concerned, so they had spent nearly the whole of the crisis so far living apart. 

The separation and trying to run a business and his reserve Auror work remotely while also looking after young children hadn’t brought out the best side of Ron, and he was back to being a little on the snippy side with everyone. 

He and George had unfortunately hooked on to the “Shrew” mistake to drop occasional jokes about 

‘Your shrew misbehaving again Dad?’ whenever Molly Weasley got particularly annoying, which put her into an even worse mood. The joke also did become wearing after a while. 

So Ginny was trying her best to divert her father onto safer terms. 

“It’s a mouse, dad. A MOUSE.”

“A mouse! Mouse. Of course, of course. Fascinating! Where was I... oh yes, did you know that the shr...mouse one has a COMPLETELY different plug to the one that goes to the magic mirror? And there are all sorts of plugs and wires at the back, some of them even have little screws on them and little pins... Thirty five years of plugs I have now in my little collection, you know! The ingenuity of these muggles, bless them!” 

Hermione had disappeared and reappeared again, having knocked a button as she reached out her wand to divert some of her stream of messages to her assistant. 

“There, sorry, went into stealth mode again - is that better?” She said, sounding absolutely exhausted. 

“Yes, all good here”

“Yes, dear”

“Yes, Hermione”

“No I still can’t see you...no wait, sorry love, got you now.”

“Hello Mum, I can see you!”

Ron jumped and looked over his shoulder. Hugo, his and Hermione’s son, had appeared behind him, little face grinning on the corner of the screen. 

“Where did you come from?”

“I followed you in dad, I wanted to say hello to everyone. Why are you in here?”

“I moved in here to get away from Rose, so she was able to concentrate on school. Why aren’t you on the muggle computer upstairs?” 

“It doesn’t work again, dad. It cut off and my teacher said just leave it, don’t try to log back in. School was nearly finished anyway” 

Ron looked frazzled struggling to not snap at Hugo and bit back expletives about his teacher giving up on Hugo’s home schooling yet again. 

Hermione had wanted Rose and Hugo to go to a muggle school until they went to Hogwarts, and most of the time it had worked. 

Right now however it was a nightmare. 

The Ministry had managed to combine magical and muggle technology to be able to communicate between wizards, but it was too risky to try to log into Muggle school systems without careful staging of background space so nothing magical appeared. 

Many wizarding parents just told their children to pretend that it was a clever video filter, or blame computer glitches, but Hermione didn’t want any risk her family could be accused of exposing the Magical Community. 

Ron had finally managed to work out a fixed fake background with a carefully shielded and non magical muggle computer and his Father in Law had set up a muggle wired internet connection. However the house was so magical that the computer was very unreliable. 

Hugo’s teacher was very kind and assumed his family couldn’t afford newer technology, so kept letting Hugo off early. Ron suspected that his son was deliberately moving the shielding as soon as he got bored. 

His daughter Rose had different issues with her remote lessons from Hogwarts. She was too clever for a lot of the remote learning, as she already knew most of the theory. Because she kept pressing the ‘Raise hand’ button all the time, or blurting out the answer if people too too long, most of the teachers had put her on mute, so she had realised she could get away without even being there for some time before anyone questioned her being missing. 

With Hermione’s parents isolating with them, and not used to magical items, and Hermione barely ever able to get home, Ron felt sometimes that he was spending his whole day fire fighting. Sometimes literally, if Dr and Dr Granger pressed the wrong button in the magical kitchen.


	3. Chapter 3

Ron usually got on well with his parents-in-law. They were fiercely intelligent and very good Dentists and in the muggle world, but spent very little time in the Wizarding world, although very proud of their daughter and family. 

“Go and ask Grandpa Granger to check what might be wrong, and make sure you have the shielding all the way up. I’m sure you had homework you were supposed to be doing.” Said Ron

“Ron, it’s probably just that Hugo hadn’t shut the box around it properly, Dad doesn’t know about wizard shielding, he can’t help...” cut in Hermione

“I KNOW that” Ron replied through clenched teeth, and waited a moment till Hugo had gone and shut the door. “But your father keeps trying to see how he can ‘help’ me work, and I’m worried he’ll get hurt. A bit of time working out what is going on in something he CAN help with will keep him occupied so I can get on with some work after this call.”

“Ron he will undertstand if you have to work, really it’s not necessary...”

“I’m here with them, alright, I know what works, I’ll decide what’s necessary.”

“Really Ron...”

Harry sensed that the pair, who were both wearing headphones, had forgotten they were on a group video call. He cut in quickly. 

“Ah... er... how is EVERYONE then? Anyone heard anything from Charlie in Romania recently?”

Ron and Hermione, who had started frowning and had clearly been heading for a row, looked startled and then look properly at the screen again. 

Harry saw his wife Ginny hide a smile, and saw Mr and Mrs Weasley squinting at the screen, trying to work out who had spoken. 

“No we haven’t heard from him, I’m so worried” said Mrs Weasley. 

“Don’t worry Molly dear, he knows how to look after himself. He could hardly leave the dragons, especially when the restriction on travel came in and he would have had to travel as a muggle. How would he explain not having a muggle passport but being in Romania?” said Mr Weasley soothingly. 

Molly didn’t look convinced. She decided not to press the matter though, and frowned at the screen. 

An extra picture suddenly popped up and George Weasley’s face appeared, the camera hovering neatly a good distance from his face while he worked on another screen and lazily waved his wand towards some parcels being made up in a corner. 

He was clearly in the joke shop, though the door was locked and a Closed Temporarily WE WILL BE BACK notice in the window, next to a sign saying. 

“Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes now have a full OWL ORDER OR HOME DELIVERY SERVICE, just ask!” 

George looked tired too, and busy, but was still trying to keep a smile on his face while he did several jobs at once. 

“Hello folks, how are you all?” 

A chorus of Hellos rang out, and Mrs Weasley beamed. 

“Hello George, how lovely to see you. Where is Angelina?”

“I’m here Molly, helping with the packing” came a voice from behind George’s computer. 

He gave a flick of his wand and the screen whirled round to show his wife waving, looking just as tired as him. He clicked it back round to him again and Mrs Weasley stopped trying to look at the background of the shop to see whether it was really the case that no one was out shopping. 

She didn’t like going to Diagon Alley that much normally, but since being told she couldn’t she really wanted to go, and kept trying to make excuses to go out. 

She looked back at another of the tiny videos. 

“Where are you Ginny?” She asked. “I can see Harry dear, he’s in your living room, I recognise the pictures of your wedding. But you are very dark?”

“Wait mum, I’ll turn the light on” Ginny moved out of the shot and a light turned on showing a cramped attic room full of old Quidditch trophies and Memorabilia. 

She seemed to have caught her microphone so her reply was inaudible. Harry guessed the words she was mouthing as she tried to get the audio to work again might not be suitable for family ears, and jumped in to answer instead. 

“Ginny and I are both at home, Molly. She’s just upstairs so we can test how well this “Whizz” video app works if you are in the same house. It kept making strange noises when we sat together.”

“App? I thought this was called a Bruiser?” Cut in Mr Weasley. “Should I have an App? I thought I Dunderloaded everything I needed? Do I need more bits?

Ginny’s voice suddenly cut in, very loud. 

“IT’S AN APP WHEN IT’S ON A PHONE OR TABLET DAD, DON’T WORRY” 

“But mine called itself an App too?” Cut in Ron, looking confused. “Does that mean I am on an Internet Bruiser too then?”

“NO YOURS IS AN APP BECAUSE IT’S A NEWER COMPUTER RON”

“So I need a new computer do I then?” Said Mr Weasley, looking pleased. 

The whole rest of the family groaned and then quickly tried to pretend it was a video chat error. They had all been trying to avoid Mr Weasley knowing that not all computers were the same, and some might be simpler to use. 

There had been a relaxation on wizards buying and adjusting muggle items due to the crisis, and having retired from the Ministry and only working on an advisory basis he was already pushing the limits of the rules and getting as many muggle objects ordered in to him as he could. 

The muggle postmen and women were already so tired and confuddled with the situation that they were willing to leave parcels on the road by a sign, so he could get muggle parcels delivered easily for the first time, and it was only by adding an undetectable extension charm to his workshop that he had been able to fit it all in. 

“Arthur, PLEASE don’t order a new computer unless you have to” cut in Hermione, looking even more harrassed as a wave of memos arrived at ones and had a mid air collision just above her head. “The ministry is really struggling with the situation as it is, we really do need any muggle computers to be checked with us first, in case they have been cursed.”

Ron suddenly disappeared from view as he dropped his computer. 

“Sorry, sorry, forgot I had to hold on to it. If you would just let me add a hover charm Hermione, it would really help”

“They haven’t been approved Ron, I can’t ...”

“Oh I didn’t know that, sorry Hermione,” said George with a fake innocent look, walking deliberately around the shop a lot to show his computer following him and hovering perfectly in mid air. “Sure to be approved any day now though I’m sure...surely you could let ickle Ron-Ron have one now?”

“I.CAN’T.BE.SEEN.TO.BE.RELAXING.RULES.FOR.MY.OWN.FAMILY” came her reply through gritted teeth.

Harry started to grin before remembering the as Head of the Auror office he was probably supposed to make sure people followed this sort of rule. 

He was rescued from having to pretend to disapprove by a diversion. 

Hermione swore suddenly, and could be seen opening her door and waving to an assistant to remove a collection of Howlers that had arrived on her desk. 

As the little wizard rushed in and scooped them up, but some of them went off before he could escape the room. 

“THIS IS MINISTRY MADNESS! WHY CAN’T I HAVE THE PORTKEY I ORDERED FOR MY SON’S BIRTHDAY? IT’S ONLY A GROUP OF 27 OF US??!”

“YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE ME DO THIS, I LIVED THROUGH TWO WIZARDING WARS YOU KNOW!”

“I NEED TO YOU TO TELL THOSE AURORS THE RULES DON’T APPLY TO PURE BLOODS, IT’S ONLY MUDBLOODS AND BLOOD TRAITORS AND GOOD RIDDANCE TO YOU, NOW LET ME LEAVE MY HOUSE!”

“WHY DON’T WE KNOW HOW LONG THIS WILL LAST? THIS IS MADNESS, MADNESS I TELL YOU. JUST FIND THE COUNTER CURSE AND BE DONE WITH IT!”

Hermione looked resigned, and turned back to the screen. 

“Sorry everyone.” She wiped some ash off her forehead and sat down slumped in her chair. 

“Happens so often now we’ve had to open a special Howler room, otherwise the explosions before we manage to open them were causing too much damage. Normally they catch them before they reach me, but some always manage to slip through. Where were we?”

George obviously decided not to push things, and set his computer down on a surface. 

“Er...dad’s computer not being Appy I believe” he said innocently. 

Hermione gave him a look that showed she clearly had remembered that there had been more, but thankfully both decided to let it go. 

Mr Weasley persisted, keen to try to learn more about Muggle Technology. 

“But aren’t you all using a Dekky top like me? How did Ron have the computer on his lap?” 

“Some of us are on tablets dad” said Ginny, trying to explain. “They work better with magic around. Your’s is ok though, it’s so old...er um...unique in style because of when you got it that it uses a different system. That’s why you are using a browser and we are using an app.”

“But didn’t Ron say his computer had an apple?”

“An app dad. Not an apple. And Ron could drop his because his is smaller than yours.”

Mr Weasley looked bemused. “I’m sure Ron’s computer looked like mine last time I was there?”

Ginny was clearly getting a bit frustrated. 

“Ron is on his work laptop...portable computer”

“Why are you on your work computer Ron?” Mrs Weasley cut in. “Are you at the ministry or in Diagon Alley? If you are there, do you think you could get me some extra floo powder and... ?”

Ron had been looking worried, concentrating on the video of his wife wafting smoke from the Howlers away while Ginny and Mrs Weasley talked. He hated Hermione getting howlers at the best of times, and was missing her. 

He heard his name and refocused, realised Ginny was getting frustrated with his mother trying to find excuses to go out or for her children to visit, and cut in.

“I’m not in London mum, I’ve brought the work computer home, as the kids need me here, and they need the other computer and the tablet for their lessons”

“Well, when you do go to Diagon Alley, can you get some floo powder? We had a good supply but where it is I just don’t know!” 

No Mum, you can’t have floo powder, we discussed this, you can’t use it at the moment anyway, so much better to wait till this is all over.” 

“But it’s so cheap right now, we could get a year’s supply if Ron could get me some...”

Harry’s mind wandered, as Ginny tried to explain to her mother again why she really did need to stay at home. Molly had changed in recent years, he thought. The woman he knew as a child would have been the one trying to get Arthur to stay home, or keep her children close to her and safe. 

He supposed the main difference was that she wasn’t able to have all her offspring with her. She really wanted them all to come and isolate together, but their jobs would have needed too much coming and going, led to too much risk for Arthur and her. 

“Well this has been great, gotta go! Take care all!” 

The voice jarred him back to the video call. George was waving goodbye, his mind clearly on the packages and stock he and Angelina needed to organise. Even he was struggling to keep a cheerful face for long nowadays. 

The rules against non essential travel and purchases basically closed the business, but they had stock bought anticipating an Easter Sale, the bills for which were still to come. 

No money coming in, but overheads, rent and bills still kept going out. Much as they tried, no one was buying as much as before, even by Owl Order. 

Harry made a note to have a word with someone in The Office of Magical Protection, George had amazing skills as an innovator, and without the Aurors being at full capacity, defensive items would be needed again in a way they hadn’t since the demise of Voldemort. Or perhaps he could talk to someone in the newly formed “Muggle Technology” department.

George clearly had managed to get a hover and a follow charm to work on his laptop without it stopping the muggle part of the tech from working. That was no easy feat, muggle technology rarely worked well in magical areas at the best of times, and Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes was crammed full of charmed objects. 

Maybe some work for the ministry could help George improve his cash flow just a little. Harry made a note to see what he could do. 

“Bye George! Bye Angelina!”

“Bye Bye!” 

“See you next time!”

“Farewell dears, do let us know if you need any food sending over”

“MUM! You aren’t supposed to be using the owl post, you might catch the virus! George can get his own food!” 

“Honestly Mum, I’m fine, thank you though.”

Harry noticed that Ron was also struggling to keep looking at and listening to the call. Rose and Hugo had re-joined him, crowded round and waving, followed by a rather sad looking Mr and Mrs Granger. Hermione’s parents had waved at the family, but not said much. 

The strain of the situation was written all over their faces too. They had caught the virus early on, through working with patients, so were hopefully not at risk, which was one blessing. 

They had moved in with Ron and the children both to help and because Hermione was afraid dark wizards would attack them to get to her if there were shortages in Aurors due to all the extra work needed. Mr & Mrs Granger loved their grandchildren, but always found full immersion in the Wizarding World very tiring, and were glad to get back to normal after a visit. The children did tend to forget that muggles could get injured more easily than they did, and forgot to put magical items away. Months all together would be very wearing all round. 

The Grangers were also extremely worried. They had worked incredibly hard to build up their dental surgery. This was their income, passion and had been planned to be their pension. Now the whole industry was on Emergencies only and money pouring out with little or nothing coming in. They knew it was the right thing to do, but that didn’t make it any easier. 

The video chat had continued, though now was mainly bickering. 

“Now really Ginny dear, you don’t need to talk to me like that, you know. I’m always very careful when using Owl Post, I really don’t see the problem.”

“Mum, we don’t know yet if the Owls can spread it, please do just wait until we are sure!”

“Such a fuss, really dear...”

Harry looked at his rapidly increasing work memo pile, made an excuse and disconnected from the conversation, knowing he wouldn’t be missed much. Everyone waved and said their goodbyes and he logged off. He had a fair idea of what would be being said, having heard Molly’s arguments for breaking the lockdown over and over. 

He suspected the call would break up fairly soon anyway, as everyone was looking a little strained. He could see some relieved faces when he said he was going back to work, and knew everyone didn’t want to seem rude but needed to get off the call. 

Harry looked at the clock. Hermione would have to start getting ready for the Daily Ministry briefing in a short while anyway, and Ginny would be watching as a member of the press, in case any of the main team fell sick. 

Harry prepared himself for the muttering from his wife about stupid questions, even as she equally berated some of the slimier members of the Ministry for avoiding giving answers. 

Harry doubted they would call on Ginny, even if the whole team at The Daily Prophet was sick. She was considered too close to the Ministry to be objective, or to be able to ask the hard questions. 

She would ask far better questions than Xenophilius Lovegood did though. 

The first few briefings, Harry had laughed at the questions the Editor of The Quibbler came up with. However he swiftly became just as frustrated by the miracle cures and conspiracy theories as Hermione did. 

St Mungos was struggling as it was, and totally understaffed as so many of the Healers had caught the virus and were unable to go in. The conspiracy theories just added to their workload and put them at risk. 

“Do the Ministry have any explanation why they are hiding the simple cure expected using Gernumbli gardensi saliva?” 

This statement and the following Quibbler edition had led to countless people turning up with Gnome bites, many infected as they had used other untried concoctions at the same time. 

Not that The Daily Prophet was being any more responsible. They were so determined to have answers, the Ministry were having to divert people to dealing with the press, when they really needed to focus on how to stop the spread of the virus through such a small community.

Wizards were so used to even quite serious issues being resolved with a good potion or healing spell, they had taken even longer than the Muggles to take the health risks seriously. 

Hermione and Harry had both seen how viruses affected muggles, and had had enough childhood muggle illnesses before joining the wizarding community. They had seen the dangers of this crisis sooner than most Heads of Departments, but had struggled to make other Ministry wizards agree. 

He knew Ginny was unlikely to be called up to write or ask questions, but still watched as many of the briefings as he could with her, understanding the need to watch compulsively and know every tiny detail they could, try to see a way out of this nightmarish new ‘normal’. The obvious exceptions being the speeches he had to give himself, about the way Aurors would be enforcing the new laws and regulations. He hated every minute of them, and disliked the stilted ‘be good or else’ scripts he was given. 

Harry’s eyes waved over to his pile of scrolls again. He really ought to go through them. He was struggling with finding the right balance with the Auror response, if he was honest. 

Some of his staff were being far too zealous, chasing down every tiny infringement on the new ‘guidelines’. 

Others refused to take it seriously, still convinced that it was a “muggle problem”, or no more serious than a mild jinx or curse. 

His tablet beeped, and he saw an incoming call from Hermione. Instantly he tapped to accept, and instead of the many little screens, one big one appeared with Hermione still looking harassed and eyes flicking towards the paperwork piles and incoming memos as she talked. 

“Are you alone?”

He looked around, held his hand up for a moment so she didn’t speak yet, and picked up a big magnifying glass. 

In the the middle of the glass, instead of a lens, was a magical eye, very similar to the one “Mad Eye” Moody had used. He swept quickly round the room with it and then turned back to Hermione. 

“Yes, all good, no one here. I have to check nowadays even with the sneakoscopes as James is a bit too good at getting hold of the Invisibilty cloak. The sneakoscopes don’t pick it up as they have ‘general harmless mischief’ filters on.” 

He picked up a secrecy sensor and moved it around the room as he continued. 

“George invented the filter, and it does seem to work. I’ll get him to send you one over. With children from Potter-Weasley clan about it’s the only way to not be driven mad, the old ones used to be always going off.”

Hermione smiled, but he noticed the slight grin was forced and didn’t reach her eyes. Harry settled himself back down and concentrated on the screen and the call. 

“He would only be doing it to be able to leap out and make us jump, so I don’t normally mind, but I’m guessing this is Ministry business? What’s up?”

“I’m sorry Harry, I really am, but I’m going to have to ask you to join me for the Daily Briefing.”

“But how? Isn’t it in about 20 minutes? What am I briefing about?” 

“We have a problem with people complying. Last minute change of plan.”

She spoke through gritted teeth, and looked really irritated. He had an idea of what she was going to say. 

Ever since the end of the second Wizarding War, people had been obsessed with using him as a way to make people behave, or in the current situation, to take advice seriously. 

He not only had defeated the greatest Dark Wizard of the age, he was the only person to have survived the Avada Kadavra curse not once but three times, and for many wizards he could do no wrong. 

He hated it, tried to deflect as much attention elsewhere as he could, he had had enough attention at the time. Now they seemed to want him involved on every little announcement, and rarely was it that important or useful advice. 

Hermione blocked a lot of the requests, saying that too much exposure would dilute the importance of the messages. She argued that it had more impact then when Harry really HAD to get involved. 

In the past few years, it hadn’t been much of an issue, time and short memories had given him a little bit more of a chance to have a family life, have a tiny bit of privacy. However since the start of this crisis, he had been pushed into speech after speech, and for less and less clear reasons. 

“Harry, it’s nothing new, just more of the same. People aren’t paying attention to the need to only Apparate within a few miles from home.”

Harry groaned. How hard was this to understand?

“... And most wizards just aren’t understanding that our secrecy charms only work when the muggles can be distracted or are not paying attention. There are just too many muggles stuck inside looking out of their windows at the moment”

“Surely they don’t think me saying it for the 14th time in a row will make any difference?” 

“Don’t get me started. I agree, but the Very Important People Emergency Regulation committee want you. I did say you haven’t had a day off for weeks, but they are determined you need to make a statement. I’m sending a high speed memo over now so you know what to say.”

A little box like a muggle printer started to whir in the corner of Harry’s Office. A little set of arms made up a red paper airplane memo, which flew over to his inbox and landed. 

Harry groaned. He knew there was no point in arguing, but he would now have to rapidly tidy his office so it looked vaguely presentable, and then read out a preprepared speech he could almost do by heart now. 

Followed by question after question about why he wasn’t concentrating enough people on Broom thefts, or sending people who broke the rules to Askaban. Never mind that the wizarding prison was no longer used in the same way, some people seemed determined to send their neighbours to be tormented by Dementors, and most disappointed when it was pointed out that they were no longer used. 

Harry rubbed his forehead again, as the thought of Dementors brought him back to another of his issues. With muggle despair and fear at an all time high, the Dementors were breeding again, in a way they hadn’t since the Second Wizarding War. He really needed to get some of the younger Aurors into extra Patronus training, as with the disruption to transport they couldn’t rely on the chocolate supply being enough to keep the muggles safe. 

“So sorry Harry, but they feel people don’t take Dawlish Jr seriously enough. Don’t let him know that though. He’s doing a great job, but you know how he can be sometimes...”

Harry waved to show he understood and said goodbye, knowing she and he both needed time to prepare.

Dawlish Jr was a very accomplished Auror, good at explaining things and excellent at his job. Unfortunately his father’s past history was being used against him, having gained the reputation for being the most Confunded wizard in the Wizarding World War. 

The Prophet particularly kept dropping hints about Dawlish Jr being confunded, trying to undermine the stay at home message for their own purposes. This did mean that using Dawlish distracted from the message, and more and more jokes or taunts about the Auror office not knowing what they were doing. 

Harry sighed, opened the door and shouted up the stairs to his family not to disturb him as he had to do a Ministry briefing. 

“Good luck dad”  
“Oh Harry, not again, this is supposed to be a day off!”  
“Have a good one dad”  
“Can I come and sit with you?”  
“Of course you can’t Lily, he’s going on television.”  
“Dung brain Lily!”  
“Don’t be so MEAN!”  
“You are too young to use magic, what can you do about it?”

“ALL OF YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DO MAGIC, DON’T MAKE ME COME DOWN THERE” Ginny shouted fiercely. She was likely to be read to watch the briefing anyway, and didn’t want to have to referee. 

A crash and squeal, followed by a yell from James Sirius as Lily replied, and Albus chortling suggested his children were squabbling muggle style, so Harry retreated into his study and locked the door just as a precaution. 

He did another quick sweep of the room with his various secrecy tools and heaved a sigh of relief. His children had inherited both Weasley and Potter tendencies for mischief, so he didn’t want to risk a sudden arrival of his offspring on an important call. God help him when they were old enough to learn to apparrate. 

He waved his wand at the wall behind his screen and made sure it looked suitably serious and presentable, not bothering with the other side of the room, then opened the memo with the briefing speech. As Hermione said, it was more of the same. 

He turned the camera onto the chat room again, to check his appearance and align the camera knowing full well that everyone on it would have logged off by now. He jumped as Neville Longbottom’s face peered up at him. 

“Oh hello Harry! I was hoping the chat might still be on, saw Rose wandering off to join. Looks like I missed it did I? Couldn’t find the passwords to get in, this school computer is worse than Sir Cudugeon for insisting I change my password every few days!”

“Hello Neville, sorry you just missed it. Tell me your schedule for the e-lessons next week and I’ll try to time it when you can join.” Harry replied, one eye on the clock, but feeling bad for not remembering to include Neville. 

“No problem, when I work it out myself I’ll let you know! Absolute nightmare this, isn’t it.”

“Horrendous” Harry agreed. He was torn, as he really did enjoy chatting to Neville, but the briefing camera would come on in a few minutes. 

“Listen Harry, while I have you. She’s been asking me for weeks but I didn’t like to hassle you. Could you ask someone at the Ministry to return Hannah’s calls? She needs to know what to change the Leaky Cauldron into to avoid Muggle Pleasemen.”

“I...wait, what?” Said Harry. He had been just starting to apologise to Neville and explain he needed to go, but this was something he hadn’t expected. Neville lived with Hannah, the landlady of the Leaky Cauldron, so it made sense he would be asking, but Harry was completely thrown by the question.

“Surely the Muggle Police aren’t suddenly interested in the Leaky Cauldron are they? It always looks closed anyway, why are they worried?”

“Well now pubs are not allowed open, they keep stopping people going in there, and threatening to fine us. So we tried making it look like a shop instead, but then they closed those. Then we even tried making it just a house, but all the muggle neighbours keep reporting us for having people coming in and out. We just don’t know what to do.”

Harry didn’t know any answer either. He’d have to pass it on to someone else at the ministry. It was important that the Leaky Cauldron stayed open, as it was one of the few places muggles related to wizards or wizards trying not to apparate much could enter to use as a safe place if they were in need. He wasn’t sure how best to help though, if the normal muggle repelling charms were not working properly. 

He explained to Neville about the daily briefing call and made a promise to catch up with him properly another time, then switched rapidly over to the briefing app, and waited for the link to catch up. 

On a screen in the corner, he saw Hermione go to one podium, spaced 2m away from the Minister for Magic to another, and then saw Augustus Pye go to the third. 

The healer who had experimented with stitches with Arthur Weasley many years before had always continued his interest in ‘Alternative’ Muggle Medicine, and had largely been ignored by the Ministry ever since. 

Now he was suddenly an expert, since most of the other healers had no interest or knowledge about Muggle remedies. Since no one knew quite what this was, it suddenly became important to have someone who understood both, as they searched for a solution to the crisis for both wizards and muggles. 

The conference went about as well as normal. The figures were scary, though starting to look a little less so. The possible new muggle researched treatments or suggested counter jinxes were still in their early days, and no matter how much the press demanded answers, no one really had any yet. 

A red light on his screen began to flash. Harry glanced down at his speech and saw more of the same message that had been repeated day in and day out. 

He glanced over towards the far wall while he waited, and saw the family photos all looking at him, still for once as if they were waiting to see what he had to say. None of these were portraits capable of speech or listening, it wouldn’t have been safe to have his office open. However the inhabitants of the pictures still moved, smiled and waved. He felt relaxed for one brief moment, seeing his parents, Sirius, Tonks and Lupin, Dumbledore and many more smiling over at him. They had all advised him and helped him through crisis after crisis, it was comforting to have them nearby. 

He braced himself for the broadcast. He knew most people turned off halfway once they knew the main details, but it will still a lot of people. And a speech he found boring himself, which didn’t really help. He felt frustrated. At least in the Second Wizarding War he had been able to DO something about an enemy most of the time. All this waiting was so frustrating he didn’t really blame all the people wanting to bend or break the rules, but they did make everything so much harder. 

Suddenly he tore up the insipid repetitive speech he had been sent, and looked into the camera. 

The video link came up and he greeted the Wizarding World. On the TV screen he showed up on a monitor above a fourth podium. 

“Now, I know you are all expecting me to say all the same things as last time, but I’m not. Please don’t turn off your sets yet.” he began. 

On the TV screen he had set to one side he saw puzzled expressions on the Ministry Speaker’s faces before they quickly tried to look as though this was expected, and all part of the plan. 

“Instead I am going to use some of the words of Great Wizards of the Wizarding War” he said. 

“The muggle population have done something similar, with the Queen reminding us that We will meet again, and it helped a lot of people make some sense of this madness.”

He took a breath, glanced up at the photos on his study wall again, and steadied his voice.

“We don’t know how we will solve this problem. We don’t know how long it will take.”

In the background of the broadcast from within the Ministry he saw panic. They had been doing all they could to make people feel they had everything under control, what was he doing? 

Harry continued, knowing he probably wouldn’t get another chance to make the speech, and feeling suddenly that it was the right thing to do. People knew there was a danger out there, they knew it would take time to get the answers. 

They needed to know that the Ministry was doing everything they could, and that the restrictions were important, but just being ordered about and treated like children was never going to make them understand. The people who wanted to rebel would just keep looking for loopholes. 

They needed to realise that every person’s actions would help to win this war. Those on the front lines needed to know their Ministry would not just hide behind phrases designed to not admit the situation fully. 

It was his job to protect them, back them up by stopping people making their journeys to work more risky, or their chance of bringing the virus back to their own families more. They were prepared to take the risks, but were feeling that other wizards didn’t have their backs. He needed to make the wizards staying home know that they DID have a choice, and they needed to make the right one. 

It was the difference, he thought, for the second time in his life, between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death, and walking into the arena with your head held high. So many people were feeling powerless, they needed to know that their actions, their choices mattered, that they were part of all this whatever the end result for them personally. 

Cooperation would solve this problem far faster than treating the wizards like naughty children or policing their every move. 

“Professor Dumbledore once said to me,” Harry continued. “It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” 

He paused for a moment and then went on. 

“We know that people want to meet up, we know that we all are scared and have pressures on us. Staying home is hard, and many of you know people who are not following the guidelines. They may even be putting pressure on you to do the same.” 

He paused. He had had so many sudden thoughts as he tore his speech up, now he needed to make sure they all made sense. He carried on. 

“We are scared of something we can’t see, and many of us want to ignore it, or even avoid talking about it, pretend it is just another flu” he started. We want this to be over, and somehow think if we ignore the restrictions, we can ignore the virus, can ignore Covid 19” 

“I leave you now with a plea to PLEASE follow the guidelines, please help us beat this by staying home where you can. Give the Healers of St Mungos and the Muggle Health Service a chance to beat this virus, jinx, curse, whatever you want to call it...”

He had a flashback to everyone wincing at the name Voldemort, and insisting on calling him “He who must not be named, and knew what he wanted to say next. 

“Albus Dumbledore said ‘Fear of a name increased fear of the thing itself. So when people are trying to live life as normal, trying to pretend this isn’t happening, please, don’t join in. If you can, make your friends and family understand why you won’t meet. Let them understand they need to stop, they need to think of everyone, however healthy they may feel themselves.”

Harry thought of Mrs Weasley realising he might be talking about her and his throat clammed up briefly, but he shook off the feeling and went on. 

“Many among you will have been there when Professor Dumbledore also said ‘It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends’.”

“It does take much more bravery I think, to stand up to those we love, but that is just what I am asking you to do” 

He thought of Neville Longbottom suddenly. Not the adult, more confident Professor of Herbology, but the little round faced boy who stood up to his friends. 

Dumbledore had been talking about that young Neville when he said those words, but they were no less true year later. Neville, despite being regularly discounted and laughed at, was one of the bravest people Harry knew. 

He suddenly knew how to end his speech. 

“I’m reminded of another Professor, another hero of the Second Wizarding War” he continued. 

Normally he hated being described as a ‘Hero’ but just now he saw how it was needed. 

It reminded people that the world had been through adversity and moved on. That at least today there were not random muggle killings for sport, or families coming home to a house with the Dark Mark above, knowing that all within were dead. 

“Professor Neville Longbottom once said this to me, at a time when all seemed grim, and all hope was lost.” Harry continued.

He saw the little flicker that told him his video feed would cut off soon. They clearly weren’t planning on getting him to answer press questions, given that he had gone so suddenly off the message he had been given. 

“... Neville said to me, at just the right time. ‘We’re all going to keep Fighting Harry. You know that?’ ”

Harry just got his last words in before it was about to cut off, and in a flash of inspiration dimmed his lights, raised his wand, pointing at the ceiling just as if it was many years before when Dumbledore died. At that time the whole school and staff aimed up to the sky and each tiny beam of light helped to break up the clouds above. 

“Well that’s what we are all going to do. Stay home, Stay Safe, Save lives” he said, borrowing from muggle broadcasts he had seen. 

The video link shut off and he looked at the TV screen. 

The Ministry officials were looking most put out, but the Minister for Magic, Hermione and Healer Augustus Pye were grinning. 

Hermione dimmed the ministry briefing room lights. In unison they raised their own wands and put out out a beam of light, each beam making the darkness a little lighter. 

“We’re not worried Harry,” said Hermione, her voice breaking, as she borrowed another phrase of Dumbledore’s. “We are with you” 

The End


End file.
